Experimental investigation and numerical simulation of a slab waveguide CO_2 laser with rf pumping

摘要

Experimental and theoretical investigations were made of the active-medium gain and of the parameters of the radiation emitted by an rf-pumped slab CO2 laser. The average output power was 160 W and the efficiency was 10%. Near-diffraction-limited divergence was achieved. In the pulse-periodic regime, the pulse power was twice the average power in the cw regime. When external correcting optics was used, the total divergence of the laser radiation was 2—3 mrad at 0.8 of the total power. A suite of programs for numerical simulation of the physical processes in an rf-pumped slab CO2 laser with diffusion cooling was developed. The experimental and theoretical results were compared.